All that insinuation, suspicion and guesswork
aside, when we gathered at the KTM booth
for their 2015 launch at the EICMA motorcycle
show in Milan, we were surprised to see that
KTM was now showing off a trio of Freeride
e-bikes: the motocross-oriented Freeride E-SX,
the off-road worthy Freeride E-XC and the pave-ment-friendly (and street-legal) Freeride E-SM.

All three bikes share the same platform, but
are accentuated with more sport-specific components. Starting with the frame, the bikes rely
on a truly composite combination of chromoly
and aluminum with a bolt-on polymer subframe.

The suspension duties are handled by WP. As
for the liquid-cooled motor and battery specs,
the bikes are powered by a brushless, synchronous motor and a 360-volt lithium-ion Samsung
battery. The bikes have three ride modes and a
quick-change power pack. KTM claims up to an
hour of range at full power, which is rated at 16
k W. Dry weight is 242 pounds. As for price and
availability, well, your guess is as good as ours.

The most official response we got was that
the bikes will be available in Europe soon—at
least that’s more than we ever got from Harley-Davidson. ■